Side drums are also referred to as snare drums and are a component of drum sets for producing music. They produce the cracking sound that is desirable with orchestral or marching music, for instance.
Snare drums usually have a frame shaped in the manner of a shell of metal, wood or plastic which is generally provided with two heads, i.e., with an upper head, also called a drum head, which can be struck by a drummer in order to generate vibrations, as well as with a lower head, also called a resonant head, which is excited by these vibrations.
Sets of snares for snare drums of the above-mentioned type are also referred to as snare sets. They generate the cracking sound typical for snare drums. For sound generation, sets of snares generally comprise a plurality of elongated wires lying next to one another, as a rule of metal, plastic or gut, which can be excited to form vibrations. These wires, also called snare wires, are generally shaped to form wires or strings of constant thickness.
Sets of snares should be fastened to drums such that the wires of the set of snares bear directly against the surface of a head of the drum, usually the resonant head of a snare drum. When the drum is struck, the wires of the set of snares are thus excited to resonate as well, and thus to rack or rattle, in that vibrations of the head, against the surface of which the set of snares bears, are transferred to the wires of the set of snares.
The fastening of a set of snares to the drum is carried out on both sides of the drum frame. The set of snares thereby usually rests in a recess a few millimeters deep and several centimeters wide, lying diametrically opposite in the drum frame, which is also referred to as a snare bed. The set of snares can be correspondingly tensioned with a tensioning means, such as, for example, a toggle lever mechanism or the like, so that the individual wires thereof can bear against the surface of the head of the drum.
A tension of the set of snares or the wires thereof that is too loose can hereby mean that the wires of the set of snares do not bear against the head of the drum or do not bear with sufficient bearing force against the head of the drum, i.e. in particular against the resonant head of the snare drums, which can be expressed in a sound that is too weak. Also in this case the wires of the set of snares of the drum can pick up vibrations from other musical instruments from the surroundings of the drum set and thus excite the set of snares and a resonant head of a snare drum to undesirable interfering background noise, such as, for example, booming or rattling noises. In particular a set of snares bearing poorly against the head “booms” or “rattles” unpleasantly while being played at certain frequency ranges if other drums, such as, for instance, a bass of the drum set are also being played.
In order to reliably ensure a good bearing of the wires of a set of snares against the head of a snare drum, these wires therefore have to be firmly tensioned. However, an excessively taut tensioning of the wires of the set of snares can hereby lead to a sharp, dry even “dead” sound of the snare drum as well as reducing too much the sound response, so that in particular a snare drum in which the set of snares bears too tightly against the resonant head is less sensitive to weak strokes.
Attempts to improve the bearing behavior of sets of snares against heads of drums, in particular resonant heads of snare drums, for example, with means for increasing the bearing forces of the snare wires without having to tension them too tightly, for example, by means of attaching pads to the head from below, such as, for example, strips or adhesive tapes, has hitherto lead rather to a negative change or to a damping of the sound behavior of snare drums instead of an improved sound behavior.